Junfeng Company pays close attention to the dynamics of the two sessions regarding intelligent and new energy vehicles. Many new terms were proposed in this meeting, among which "new productive forces" is a new term that we are unfamiliar with.

What is "new productive forces": An advanced productivity that plays a leading role in innovation, breaks away from traditional economic growth methods and productivity development paths, has high-tech, high-efficiency, and high-quality characteristics, and conforms to the new development concept.   New productive forces, as a concrete manifestation of advanced productive forces, are the innovation and practice of Marxist productive forces theory in China, and the fundamental achievement produced by the cross integration and breakthrough of scientific and technological innovation. New quality productivity is an innovation and development of Marxist productivity theory, which embodies the profound theoretical insights and rich practical experience of the Party's leadership in promoting economic and social development.

"New quality productivity" has become a new high-frequency term in the 2024 National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. So, how can we seek new driving forces for economic development from new productive forces and assist in the high-quality development of the Chinese economy?

"New energy vehicles should become representatives of new productive forces, reflecting technological innovation, brand advancement, and high-quality development." Yin Tongyue, a representative of the National People's Congress and Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Chery Holding Group, told reporters on this website that Chinese enterprises, especially Chinese automobiles, should continue to increase investment in research and development, increase investment in brand building, create the ultimate product strength, and add glory to Made in China, Created in China, and Chinese brands, Make more global users like Chinese products and choose Chinese cars.

Su Nan, a researcher at the China Academy of Science and Technology Development Strategy, expressed a similar view. He believes that the new energy vehicle industry is the carrier of many new technologies such as new energy, new materials, new generation information technology, and advanced manufacturing, and is a future industry that conforms to the trend of green and digital development. China's new energy vehicle industry relies on technological innovation to form a first mover advantage in global competition, and is in a leading position, changing the traditional competition pattern dominated by foreign automotive giants in the fuel vehicle industry. It is a model for forming and shaping new productive forces.

Consolidate and expand leading advantages

The 2024 government work report clearly proposes to actively cultivate emerging and future industries. Consolidate and expand the leading advantages in industries such as intelligent connected new energy vehicles, and accelerate the development of cutting-edge emerging hydrogen energy, new materials, innovative drugs, and other industries.

In recent years, Chinese car companies have made good use of new productive forces and gained more and more consumer recognition through their technological advantages, accumulating new momentum for brand improvement. For example, NIO, which stands out in the field of new energy battery swapping, has reached cooperation with Chery and JAC after Dongfeng Junfeng, Changan, and Geely. Thanks to its scale and network effects, it has received widespread support from the capital market and the automotive industry, jointly promoting the construction of China's battery swapping network and standard system.

In terms of intelligent manufacturing, the second advanced manufacturing base of Weilai has reached the global advanced level in terms of full chain intelligence, process flexibility, progressiveness equipment, efficient industrial chain, low-carbon sustainability, etc. For the new generation of intelligent electric vehicles, the company's three major goals of "reflecting the spirit of innovation leaders, fully utilizing the possibility of technological breakthroughs, and continuously iterating and evolving design genes" are closely aligned with promoting industrial innovation and developing new productive forces through technological innovation.

"Building a modern industrial system, technology plays a supporting role." Zhu Huarong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Changan Automobile, a National People's Congress representative, told our reporter that focusing on developing new productive forces and improving total factor productivity has been put on Changan Automobile's work schedule. This year, Changan Automobile plans to fully launch 8 new intelligent connected new energy vehicles, ensuring the overall sales target of 2.8 million vehicles is achieved.

In addition to pure electric vehicles, hydrogen energy was first mentioned as an emerging energy source in this year's government work report. Benefiting from strong support from national policies and top-level design, China's hydrogen energy market is currently developing rapidly, with major energy manufacturers entering the market, accelerating the expansion of hydrogen applications and breakthroughs in technological costs. At present, both Dongfeng Group and Junfeng Company have advanced their involvement, top-level design, and seized the high ground of hydrogen energy.

It is understood that on the application side, fuel cell vehicles are one of the most widely used scenarios for hydrogen energy, and hydrogen fuel cell stacks are the main component of hydrogen vehicles, known as the "heart" of fuel cell vehicles.

The latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in December 2023, the monthly production and sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China were approximately 1300 and 1500, respectively, with year-on-year growth of 98.8% and 149.1%, achieving a historic high in production and sales performance.

Activate new quality productivity

Currently, including the automotive industry, new productive forces is accelerating the incubation and maturity of many production and operation fields. It originates from "new", focuses on "quality", and focuses on "productivity". It is accelerating the cultivation and development of digital economy innovation.

Entering Dongfeng Voyah's digital factory, the reporter saw that the strong "new" manufacturing momentum is driving a new leap in the modern industrial system. As the largest vehicle manufacturing factory in China and also the core strategic factory of Lantu's intelligent manufacturing, new productive forces has become remarkable in the breakthrough of the industry towards new and upward trends. This more intelligent, lean, and adaptable production base is not only a practical implementation of digital innovation by Chinese manufacturing, but also a strong proof of Chinese brands winning new energy with digital intelligence and leaping towards digital intelligence.

The above-mentioned person in charge told reporters that in the era of new energy and digitalization, it is not just about comparing products and prices, but a series of comprehensive ecosystems covering intelligent manufacturing, supply chain systems, and sustainable development strategies. The 16 standardized and configurable intelligent scenarios created by Shuzhi Factory, including intelligent production, intelligent scheduling, intelligent logistics, and intelligent warehousing, have solved the pain points of traditional factories such as "data silos". Not only can costs be reduced by about 20%, but carbon emissions during the production process are also greatly reduced.

Given the established advantages, how can we consolidate and enhance them in the next step? Feng Xingya, a National People's Congress representative and General Manager of GAC Group, stated that the next step should be to make high-level technological self-reliance and self-improvement the core support for high-quality development, adhere to the driving routes of "electrification+intelligence" and "hybrid+intelligence", further expand the leading advantages of new energy, and achieve the transformation towards multi energy.

Especially in cultivating new business formats and creating new value, "GAC will vigorously develop the digital economy, use digital technology innovation to improve business quality and efficiency. At the same time, strengthen the connection between industry and capital, accelerate the improvement of financial products and services covering the entire life cycle of the industry chain, participate in and acquire key industry enterprises with potential, and comprehensively optimize the digital support and financial supply for the development of new productive forces." Feng Xingya said.

Promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial and supply chains

The emergence of new technologies that give rise to new productive forces is not achieved overnight. It requires a long incubation period, as well as collective breakthroughs in related technologies and optimization and upgrading of the industrial chain. The urgent task in laying out the industrial chain around the development of new quality productive forces is to enhance the resilience and security level of the industrial chain and supply chain.

In fact, the automotive supply chain is not only related to the exports of Chinese automotive enterprises, but also to the high-quality development of the industry. When it comes to the supply chain, Zhang Xinghai, a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of Celis Group, said that since 2009, China has become the world's largest automobile production and sales country for 15 consecutive years. However, compared to the whole vehicle industry, the development of China's automobile supply chain is relatively lagging behind.

Our reporter observed that currently, vehicle companies have generally established long-term and stable strategic cooperation relationships with large suppliers such as Bosch and mainland China. In contrast, China's supply chain enterprises are clearly in a weak position in the industrial chain.

In this context, Zhang Xinghai believes that in-depth research can be conducted on the Chinese parts industry to identify supply chain enterprises with the potential to become industry leaders, and provide them with production factor support as well as financial and tax support for research and development. Guide, encourage, and support strong supply chain enterprises to integrate, merge, and restructure smaller supply chain enterprises, ultimately forming industry leaders.